As Black Queer student
organizers on this campus, we have noticed many deafening silences within many different communities—one of those silent
voices belongs to the Black Queer community. We have all realized that no one will speak for us but us. It is out of this
thinking that the idea to host a BlaQueer Conference came about. This conference was held at OberlinCollege on November 1 through November 3, 2001, the first weekend after
Fall Break. There are countless issues within our community that need to be discussed and addressed. BURNING CLOSETS will
cover a broad range of issues—everything from homosexuality in the Black church to Queer women in prison, to homosexuality
in Africa and hate crimes. We aim to utilize this conference as an educational tool to inform
not only the Black Queer community, but also larger communities about these issues, as they affect not only queer people,
but also their families, friends and those within the community they live. We want to create safe spaces within which to address
these issues honestly and within which people can come to hear, see and discuss issues that relate to them and are about them.

As Black Queer people,
we spend so much of our lives in the shadows of other communities, whether it be the predominantly straight culture of America, the alleged heterosexuality of most of the Black
community or the mostly white culture of the U.S. LGBTU community. For this conference, however, we are creating, naming and
defining our space for ourselves. We welcome and expect cross-cultural dialogue between different communities to further ourselves
intellectually and politically.

This conference is
being put on by Blackspeak Productions, an education through entertainment arm of Abusua. Several ZAMI and Abusua members
are already involved in the organizing of this conference. This is going to be a coalition between organizations and communities.
One of the most unique aspects of this conference is not only its content, but who will be delivering the content--students
will facilitate most of the workshops because we know that we can get through to our peers and we want to engage our peers
in a way that we know will be the most successful.

The student organizers of Working Our Way Home were inspired by the students who came before us and the amazing work
they did organizing in 2001. It is because of your work that we can now do ours. Thank You!